The last two Senseless releases have been all about tropical music from tropical places, whether that’s tribal drums from Venezuela (Zarbak EP) or roots meets future from Jamaica (Max Romeo – Protest EP). For the last release of the 2010 we continued searching the globe for the best international bass music and found something unexpected: music with warm tropical energy of from a very cold place. Ladies and gentlemen we’re proud to introduce The Phantom aka 23 year old Bartosz Kruczynski from Warsaw, Poland. This is his debut EP but the eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed his sterling remix work for countrymen Supra1 on Trouble &amp; Bass or his slot on Top Billin’s PL Funky compilation.

The Phantom’s sound is built around a rhythmic template that shapeshifts somewhere between skeletal UK Funky, speaker shaking R&amp;B and deep house wired up to glacial synths and deep, deep sub bass. He’s got a sound that’s all his own, doubtless the result of interpreting UK bass music from a distance, free to experiment and pull together a diverse set of influences ranging from Altern-8 and Mr Fingers to Deep Teknologi and Jam City. Echoes of the past reverberate with new school values, it’s what Senseless is all about.

The EP has three original tracks: there’s ‘Night Game’, shades of classic 90s R&amp;B bounce along with the kind of synthetic marimbas that make you wish Brandy would jump on a lay some vocals down. Then there’s lushly orchestrated ‘Connect The Dots’, which balances the rough with the smooth with precision and sounds like Floating Points gone to the rave. ‘Girl’ completes the trilogy: punchy, minimal production foregrounds a lush old-school piano riff matched up with tuff carnival drums.

We’ve pulled together three of the very best future bass producers to re-interpret the tracks: Brenmar is currently making tidal waves stateside with his blend of hip-hop, juke and UK bass, here he rewires ‘Girl’ with an insistent juke style clap, splices in some new vocals and lays down some seriously crisp drum work. UK house hero Hackman gets his Bladerunner strings on for a deep reimagining of ‘Night Game’ keeping things on a two step flex that switches things up from his recent 4×4 output. Finally Phantom’s Polish pal Zeppy Zep turns in a completely epic remix of ‘Night Game’ switching up somewhere in the middle from brooding Zomby style digi-garage to carnival house. One of the best ever releases on the label finishing our best ever year. Only one thing could make it better: our 5th birthday celebrations next year with ltd edition releases from the cream of the global bass crop. 2011 here we come.